Network accessibility to any network attached device during reboot and power loss

ABSTRACT

A data communication network (DCN) having a plurality of network devices coupled to the DCN with at least one of the network devices having a “boot once” connectivity manager processor (CMP). The CMP receives its power over the DCN rather than from the power applied to the network devices. The CMP can execute special operating system code and maintain network connectivity even if the network device itself is powered off, is being booted or is otherwise non-functional. The CMP is also coupled to the network device&#39;s memory so that it may respond to out-of-band polling requests for device status information from network management tools. With CMP, network administrators can monitor the boot process of network devices, determine that a network device is non-functional due to power loss and can maintain an accurate inventory status of spare network devices that are stored un-powered in a spares closet.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to computer networks and more particularlyto network devices that are accessible over a network connection duringreboot or power loss.

As computer network technology and security threats evolve, it becomesvery important to optimize both network operation and security. Thischallenge often calls for remote network management strategies thatinclude both in-band and out-of-band network management tools. In-bandmanagement tools are widely used and typically employ either a telnetconnection to a network device, such as a server or a router, ormanagement tools based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).SNMP-based tools include real-time fault detection tools that detect,log, notify users of, and automatically correct network faults. Becausefaults can cause downtime or unacceptable network degradation, faultmanagement is perhaps the most widely implemented tool.

In-band network management is the most common way to manage a network.However, when a network router malfunctions, by way of example, trafficcannot flow through the network. This creates a problem because thein-band management tools cannot be used to determine the source of thefault or to correct the fault. To address this problem, mostmission-critical networks also include the out-of-band network, which isan alternate path to reach each network device for diagnostic purposeseven when the in-band network is down.

A data communication network (DCN) is commonly used to implement theout-of-band management of networked devices. The DCN is often referredto as the out-of band network because it is not used for ‘transmit data’services. Rather, out-of-band management provides the networkadministrator the ability to manage the network in parallel with thein-band management tools and data traffic. As is well understood in theart, network administrators can utilize out-of-band network tools tofacilitate remote installation, updates, and upgrades to the operatingsystem, BIOS and any software operating on each networked device.Further, the out-of-band network tools enable the network administratorto isolate the cause and recover the failure, or reduce the impact of anetwork failure. As a further advantage, management-related networktraffic is moved to the out-of-band network so that data transmitservices can fully utilize the available bandwidth of the in-bandnetwork.

Unfortunately, even out-of-band management tools are useless when thenetwork administrator is trying to bring a networked device back on-lineafter it has been shut down. This problem arises because when a networkdevice is being booted, the device is non-functional during the bootprocess even if the out-of-band network is otherwise available. Thus,the system administrator cannot use the fault manager tool to monitor orcollect data from the device during boot-up to help pinpoint the sourceof the error. This lack of visibility during the boot process isparticularly troublesome when the error affects a device located at aremote site because a technician must be dispatched to diagnose theerror on-site. Clearly, what is needed is the ability to monitor networkdevices during the boot process so that the network administrator canremotely diagnose any boot errors and get the device back on-line.

Monitoring the boot process is especially critical whenever theoperating system or software is updated because the network device mustoften be rebooted to start executing the new code. If the installedupdate was defective, the device may be unable to boot properly or maynot be operable thereby rendering both in-band and prior art out-of-bandmanagement tools ineffective. Clearly, it is desirable to providenetwork administrators the ability to monitor the reboot process inorder to verify that the new update was correctly installed and that thenetwork device functions correctly. Alternatively, if the software isdefective, it would desirable to enable the network administrator togain control of the device and uninstall the software even if thenetwork device cannot be fully booted.

In other situations, the network device may lose power and go off-line.When power to a network device is lost, it is desirable that the networkadministrator be able to quickly ascertain the cause for the devicegoing offline. With existing management systems however, the loss ofpower will take the device off both the in-band network as well as theout-of-band network and the administrator will not have the tools todetermine the source of the problem other than to dispatch a technicianto the site. It is obviously desirable to provide the networkadministrator the ability to remotely correct a malfunction rather thanto incur the time and expense associated with dispatching a technician.

While network management is critical to maintaining the operation of theDCN, there are times when critical devices will fail. In such cases, itis necessary to swap out the defective device and replace it with afunctional device. Accordingly, it is necessary to store spare devicesin widely dispersed geographic areas so that spares are readilyavailable. Unfortunately, many network devices are very expensive sothere is a great need to carefully manage the inventory of spare devicesto ensure their availability in the event of a network failure. For thisreason, many enterprises will store several spare servers, routers andswitches in a locked room or cage for use as replacement parts. Althoughthe system administrator may count the spare devices on a periodicbasis, the count may only be accurate at the time it was taken becauseexpensive network devices are often theft targets. Thus, the most recentinventory count may be grossly inaccurate if a theft of the sparedevices has not yet been detected. To combat the constant theft problem,it is desirable to maintain a real-time inventory of the spare devicesand to constantly monitor the availability of the stored spare devices.In this manner, if a network error is traced to a router or a switch,the system administrator is assured that the necessary spare equipmentwill be available to fix the problem.

SUMMARY OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The preceding and other shortcomings of the prior art networks areaddressed and overcome by the present invention. In accordance with anembodiment of the present invention, the advantages of an out-of-bandnetwork management network are combined with a system that enables anetwork administrator to monitor a networked device during the bootprocess, when power is lost or to monitor a spare networked device thatis only connected to the out-of-band network and not to the in-bandnetwork or a power source. In particular, the present invention providesa data communication network (DCN) that interconnects one or morenetwork devices each of which include a connectivity manager processor(CMP).

The CMP functions as a communication bridge between an upstream networkhub device and the network device. The CMP includes a low powermicroprocessor and an embedded operating system, which is preferablystored in non-volatile memory, such as Flash memory. The CMP receivesits power over the DCN rather than from a power outlet that suppliespower to the network device. By receiving power over the network, theCMP can execute code and maintain network accessibility when the networkdevice itself is powered off, is being booted or is otherwisenon-functional.

In addition to supplying power, the DCN also couples the CMP to aworkstation running a network management tool. From the workstation, anetwork administrator can establish a telnet or SSH (Secure Shell)connection with the CMP over the network to control and monitor networkdevices during a power cycle or a device boot. The management stationcan be attached at any point on the DCN and need not be directlyattached to the CMP.

To assist in network management, the CMP is coupled to the networkdevice's memory and bus so that network status information can be passedto the network administrator with minimal impact on the operation of thenetwork device.

In another embodiment, the CMP of a spare network device stored in asupply closet in a powered down state is coupled to the DCN. Because theCMP receives its power over the out-of-band network, the CMP can operateto provide network accessibility without powering up the network device.Computer code executed by the CMP is adapted to respond to SNMP pollingrequests and to provide the network administrator with an accurateinventory status of the network devices being stored as spares.Inventory status may include the serial number, model number, device ID,device configuration and other information.

The CMP is primarily dedicated to the task of managing communicationtraffic over the out-of-band network. As such, the CMP's microprocessormay operate at a relatively slow clock rate and at a corresponding lowpower level. The limited functionality of the CMP enables a compactoperating system that is readily stored in Flash or other non-volatilememory. Expensive random access memory is limited because the operatingsystem code may be executed directly from the non-volatile memorywithout having to boot the operating system code into RAM. Thus, the CMPis easily adapted to a small form factor and is easily integrated withexisting network devices.

The foregoing and additional features and advantages of this inventionwill become apparent from the detailed description and review of theassociated drawing figures that follow.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram illustrating one exemplaryembodiment of a data communication network (DCN) in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a network device having aconnectivity manager processor (CMP) to handle the out-of-bandcommunication tasks for the network device in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a simplified memory map of the CMP memory inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates the a network system having a plurality of sparenetwork devices being monitored while stored in a spares closet in apower down state in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In the description herein for embodiments of the present invention,numerous specific details are provided, such as examples of componentsand/or methods, to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments ofthe present invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize,however, that an embodiment of the invention can be practiced withoutone or more of the specific details, or with other apparatus, systems,assemblies, methods, components, materials, parts, and/or the like. Inother instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are notspecifically shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects ofembodiments of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawings more particularly by reference numbers, asimplified embodiment of a representative data communication network(DCN) 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1. It is to be understood thatnetworking requirements depend on many factors so the actualconfiguration of a DCN will likely vary depending on the specificcapabilities required for a given computing environment. As such, thenetwork configuration illustrated in FIG. 1 is exemplary in nature andis not intended to reflect any particular network.

In general, each DCN 100 will include both an in-band communicationchannel 101 and an out-of-band Ethernet-based management channel 102. Inother embodiments, management channel 102 may be a RS-232, USB or otherbus capable of connecting devices in a network configuration.

In-band communication channel 101 is the data transport channel and isclassified as either a Layer 2 transport layer or a Layer 3 transportlayer. Layer 3 operates at the network domain layer by examining packetinformation and forwarding the packets based on the associatednetwork-layer destination addresses. Layer 3 is primarily related to therouting of traffic between network devices located in different domains.Layer 2 operates at the workstation data link layer address level andtraffic is routed based on frame address information. Layer 2 isprimarily related to traffic routed between network devices within asingle domain.

Out-of-band management channel 102 allows a network administrator tomanage network devices, such as routers 103, switches 104 and clients105, from an administrator's console 106 regardless of the state ofcommunication channel 101 and regardless of the domain in which thenetwork devices are located. For example, when a virus or other anomalyaffects a network device in domain 1, the administrator can remotelygain control of the afflicted device over management channel 102 and usea set of network management tools 108, such as a fault management tool,executing on console 106 in domain 2 to shut down ports and have somemeans of identifying and correcting the fault.

A Gigabit Ethernet network 107 couples routers 103 across domainsNetwork 107 provides high throughput (10 Gbps) and long distance (40km+) storage interconnect. Routers 103, such as those manufactured byCisco Systems, Inc., the assignee of the present invention, directnetwork traffic based on the destination network layer address (Layer3). Routers 103 can support all widely implemented routing protocols andhave the capability to optimize packet transport by rapidly calculatingoptimal routes. Clearly, as the volume of traffic and the complexity ofthe DCN increases, there is a need to ensure that the routers arehandling the traffic and not spending time determining the operationalstatus of other routers.

Switches 104 logically separate network segments within the same networkdomain. One popular switch is the Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switch alsomanufactured by Cisco Systems, Inc. Switches 104 operate at the OSI datalink layer (Layer 2 or peer-to-peer communication level) and connectclients 105 to the network. A wide variety of different types of clients105 may be connected to the network by switch 104. For example, clients105 may include application servers, workstations, networks storagedevices, tape libraries, web cameras or Internet telephones.

One type of network management tool 108 is based on the Simple NetworkManagement Protocol (SNMP), which uses both software and hardware agentsto monitor and report on the activity of each device in the network.During normal operation, each network device, as illustrated withdevices 105, will maintain a data structure 109 in its memory 110 tostore device status information. When polled, each device will provideits status information to management tool 108 or other network devices.Using this status information, the administrator can determine the stateof each device 103-105 and each router and switch will know theoperational status of the other routers and switches on the DCN.

There are primarily two ways to acquire the status information: in-bandnetwork management and out-of-band network management. In-band ismanaging locally through the network itself, using a telnet connectionto a network device or by using SNMP-based tools. In-band is the mostcommon way to manage a network. However, for large or business-criticalnetworks, in-band network management alone is not sufficient because ifthe in-band channel 101 is down, it cannot be used to reach the affecteddevice and resolve the fault.

Out-of-band network management uses an alternate or secondary accesspath, channel 102, to get around the fault or to access the networkdevice with the fault. It enables the administrator to monitor normaloperation of a network device when the in-band communication channel 101is heavily loaded or is otherwise not available due to a system crash orvirus. However, the inability to poll a network device when power islost or when the network device is booting creates a window of timeduring which the system administrator is unable to monitor the deviceand acquire status information. Accordingly, the present inventionfurther includes an “always on” connectivity manager processor (CMP)111. CMP 111 is dedicated to the task of managing communications overthe out-of-band management channel 102 and providing status informationeven if power to the network device is removed or the network device isin the process of booting.

DCN 100 also includes one or more power-sourcing devices. Asillustrated, each router 103 includes a power supply 112 that is capableof generating the voltage and current levels required by at least one ofthe network devices 104 and 105. Although not illustrated, each router103 may also include an associated CMP.

In one preferred embodiment, management channel 102 comprises anEthernet network and power supply 112 that is a capable of supplyingpower at the levels required by IEEE standard 802.3af (Power overEthernet) or more specifically, 48 volts (dc) over a 100 meter cablewith at least 12 watts of received power at the powered network device.Other types of power over Ethernet capabilities are known and may beused to provide power to CMP 111. For example, Cisco Systems provides aproprietary power over Ethernet capability to power Ethernet-enabledtelephones or cameras.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, one network device in each domain includes apower supply 112. Power supply 112 is preferably mounted on a daughtercard that, in turn, is mounted inline to provide power over the Ethernetnetwork. With power supply 112, router 103 can deliver power to aplurality of CMPs 111 each associated with one of the network devices104 and 105. Alternatively, power may be sourced mid-span from aseparate universal power supply (not illustrated) that is connected tochannel 102 through a network switch such as, by way of example, one ofthe switches 104. Due to line loss and power demands of a typical routeror switch, the Ethernet power source 112 is unable to source power tohigh power devices such as routers, switches or workstations. For thisreason, network devices also require a local power source, such asbuilding power, in order to operate.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary network device, such as switch 104, inmore detail. Specifically, switch 104 includes two processors 201 and202 that are responsible for controlling the operation of the switch andproviding the necessary network services. In a switch, processor 201 isresponsible for determining the destination of each inbound layer 3packet and configuring a switch matrix 203 to ensure that the outboundpacket is transmitted along the optimal route. Processor 202 isresponsible for determining the destination of each layer 2 frames andcalculating the most efficient route to the proper local destinationwithin a domain.

Processors 201 and 202 will maintain a list of system variables thatcorrespond to the operational status information of the switch. Thisstatus information is useful for many purposes including load balancing,fault detection and isolation and configuration management.

Status information is updated in real time and stored in data structure109 in RAM 204 or non-volatile storage device such as a flash memorystorage system 214. Rather than require processors 201 and 202 torespond to polling requests from tool 108 or other network device, CMP111 monitors data structure 109 and provides the status information inresponse to polling requests. By off-loading the task of responding toeach polling request, processors 201 and 202 can be dedicated to theirrespective in-band tasks, specifically, maintenance of switchingoperations and providing network services such as building andmaintaining switching tables and optimal routes.

The main purpose of CMP 111 is to be function as a transparent bridgebetween an upstream Ethernet device and the networked device. Whenstatus information is updated, CMP 111 pulls up the data so that whenthe next polling request is received, the CMP acts as a proxy for thenetwork device thereby improving operational efficiency of the networkdevice. When the network device goes down, CMP 111 provides the systemadministrator the ability to monitor the boot process and to get thenetwork device back on line.

With CMP 111, a network administrator may access remote network devicesusing Telnet or Secure Shell Host (SSH) software. Once the administratorlogs into the network device, which can be at a great distance away,from the administrator's computer, it is possible to monitor the networkdevice during both the boot process and normal operation because the CMPmaintains the Ethernet connection and access to device memory during anyreboot or power cycle.

CMP 111 comprises a microprocessor 205, which in one preferredembodiment, is a PowerPC available from IBM Corporation although othermicroprocessors, embedded processors or processor cores could be used.Microprocessor 205 operates at low power and at a relatively low clockrate. Microprocessor 205 supports Ethernet, RS-232 and U.S.B protocolsand it includes at least one 10/100 full-duplex Ethernet port that iscoupled to the Ethernet by a physical layer (PHY) device 206. Device 206provides the advanced functionality to optimize gigabit physical layerimplementations. Microprocessor 205 also includes a PCI bus arbiter 207that interfaces microprocessor 205 to a 32-bit asynchronous PCI bus 208.

CMP 111 is configured to handle all Ethernet control and processingtransactions for switch 104 as well as the additional function ofresponding to polling requests issued on the out-of-band channel 102. Inresponse to a polling request, microprocessor 205 reads the statusinformation in RAM 204 and provides the information to the requestingdevice. It will be appreciated that as networks become more complex, theneed for each switch to determine the status of all of the otherswitches will increase. For example, in a typical prior art network,SNMP management tools polls network device to get operationalstatistics. However, SNMP can only poll on a per interface basis andcurrent switch technology can support 1,100 interfaces. In the nearfuture, switches will support over 4,000 interfaces and when DSLaggregation is considered, there could be over 100,000 interfaces andSNMP polling process can take over 90 minutes or more to complete.Further, multiple devices can send out polling requests—one forconfiguration management, one for performance statistics, one for coststatistics etc. Very soon, the execution resources of processors 201 and202 can be substantially consumed by merely responding to SNMP pollingrequests. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, CMP111 acts as a proxy for processors 201 and 202 so that polling has noimpact on operational performance of the switch and provide substantialperformance improvement.

Microprocessor 205 includes Flash memory 208 to store boot or BIOS code209 and an operating system code 210 sufficient to enable CMP 111 tofunction as the connectivity manager on the Ethernet bus. Microprocessor205 also includes random access memory (RAM) 211 to store updated systemparameters or to buffer communication packets transmitted on channel102.

To further minimize power, microprocessor 205 preferably will enter alow-power operating mode when CMP 1111 is idle without affectingoperational performance or software execution. Power management isimportant because CMP 111 draws its power from the Ethernet connectionor from an optional on-board battery 212 if power supply 112 is notfunctional. Using the power over Ethernet function is an importantaspect of CMP because it enables the administrator to maintain aconnection with CMP 111 even if power plug 113 is disconnected from anelectrical outlet and no other power is applied to switch 104. Theadministrator can then re-boot the device and monitor the start upprocess rather than having to wait for the switch to boot to anoperational level. A further advantage provided by CMP 111 arises fromthe ability of the network administrator to gain control of the networkdevice even if the boot block or other operating system code of theswitch is damaged or otherwise corrupted.

Because power faults are common and difficult to preempt and because allrouters, switches, and other network devices will over time develophardware problems, it will eventually become necessary to reboot everynetwork device. During the reboot process, management tools 108 wouldnot be able to poll prior art network devices. However, because CMP 111is powered by a separate power source, it will remain functioning evenwhen the associated network device is rebooted. In one preferredembodiment, the CMP is packaged on a standardized interface card so thatit is easily ported all of the network devices in an enterprise's DCN.Because it is a low power device dedicated to managing the Ethernetconnection, console connectivity is standardized. In an Ethernet basedDCN, CMP 111 preferably employs IP protocols to natively connect to andmaintain the connection to the associated network device during a powercycle or system boot.

Advantageously, CMP 111 migrates the network management agents to adedicated layer so that processors 201 and 202 are not encumbered byhaving to respond to polling requests. Rather CMP 111 responds topolling requests thereby minimizing the resource load on otherprocessors in the network device improve network efficiency. Morespecifically, CMP is a network management abstraction layer thatfunctions independently from the rest of the network device and thatoff-loads tasks associated with network management functions conductedon the out-of-band channel.

FIG. 3 illustrates a memory map 300 for CMP 111. Flash memory 208 sitsin high memory and RAM 211 occupies low memory. BIOS 301 occupies thetop of the Flash memory 208. BIOS 301 contains executable code forinitializing microprocessor 205 and the bus interfaces 206 and 207. Anoperating system module 302 occupies the remaining portions of Flashmemory 208. Operating system module 302 includes the operating systemcode that enables microprocessor 205 to manage the connectivityfunctions performed by CMP 111. Operating system module 302 issues callsto both Ethernet communication module 303 and management interfacemodule 304 as necessary. Modules 303 and 304 contain executable codethat enables microprocessor 205 to transfer Ethernet packets to theappropriate destination and that enables microprocessor 205 to accessmemory 110 over the PCI bus 208, respectively.

Operating system 302 may optionally include a set of diagnostic routines305. The administrator may run diagnostics on the network device mayactivate diagnostic routines 305 that are executed by CMP 111. In thismanner, execution resources of processor 201 and 202 are not used to rundiagnostic routines.

Refer now to FIG. 4. CMP 111 is a “boot once” or “boot rarely” deviceonce it is connected to channel 102 because power is supplied overchannel 102 and because microprocessor 205 executes the operating systemcode directly from memory. Whenever CMP 111 is connected to channel 102,the system administrator can communicate or poll the CMP and it isimmaterial whether remainder of the network device is powered up. Thisfeature enables spare network devices to be coupled to the network andremain visible to the network administrator even if there is no localpower in a spare device closet. Thus, the network administrator can useconsole 104 to conduct a periodic polling of spare devices and maintainan accurate count of spare network devices, such as spare networkdevices 401-404 stored in a spares closet. Advantageously, because CMP111 only requires the Ethernet connection, there is no need to power upthe spare devices when stored in a storage closet or cage 405. Since thespare devices are not connected to a power source, there is no need toconfigure the storage closet with a power source or with coolingequipment. Rather, an Ethernet connection provides power and the networkconnection to CMP 111.

In one embodiment, one or more serial numbers, device IDs, modelnumbers, device configuration information and other information isstored in non-volatile memory of the CMP so that it is possible todetermine, not only the availability the spare network device but alsothe hardware and software configurations of the spares.

If a spare network device is decoupled from the out-of-band network, analarm is generated so that expensive networking gear is not easilystolen or moved to an unauthorized location. Further, since the entiredevice need not be powered up for the administrator to maintain itsdevice monitoring, there is tremendous saving in power and the lifeexpectancy of the network device is not affected.

Although the invention has been described with respect to specificembodiments thereof, these embodiments are merely illustrative, and notrestrictive of the invention. For example, the network device may be anyEthernet capable device such as a hub, bridge, computer system,workstation, server or a network storage device. Although theout-of-band channel may be any bus or communication media, one preferredembodiment is based on the Gigabit Ethernet other serial communicationmedium. Further, CMP 111 comprises software algorithms that implementconnectivity functions between the network device and other devices onthe back channel. While not all devices are shown with a CMP, it is tobe understood that devices, such as routers 103 may also include a CMPthat is powered from either the on-board power supply 112, an on-boardbattery 212 or from some other external power supply.

The executable code described herein may be implemented in any suitableprogramming language to implement the routines of the present inventionincluding C, C++, Java, assembly language, etc. Different programmingtechniques can be employed such as procedural or object oriented. Theroutines can operate in an operating system environment or asstand-alone routines occupying all, or a substantial part, of the systemprocessing.

In the description herein, numerous specific details are provided, suchas examples of components and/or methods, to provide a thoroughunderstanding of embodiments of the present invention. One skilled inthe relevant art will recognize, however, that an embodiment of theinvention can be practiced without one or more of the specific details,or with other apparatus, systems, assemblies, methods, components,materials, parts, and/or the like. In other instances, well-knownstructures, materials, or operations are not specifically shown ordescribed in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of embodiments of thepresent invention.

As used herein “memory” for purposes of embodiments of the presentinvention may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, ortransport the program for use by or in connection with the instructionexecution system, apparatus, system or device. The memory can be, by wayof example only but not by limitation, an electronic, magnetic, optical,electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, system,device, computer memory.

Reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “anembodiment,” or “a specific embodiment” means that a particular feature,structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodimentis included in at least one embodiment of the present invention and notnecessarily in all embodiments. Thus, respective appearances of thephrases “in one embodiment,” “in an embodiment,” or “in a specificembodiment” in various places throughout this specification are notnecessarily referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, theparticular features, structures, or characteristics of any specificembodiment of the present invention may be combined in any suitablemanner with one or more other embodiments. It is to be understood thatother variations and modifications of the embodiments of the presentinvention described and illustrated herein are possible in light of theteachings herein and are to be considered as part of the spirit andscope of the present invention.

Embodiments of the invention may be implemented by using a programmedgeneral purpose digital computer, by using application specificintegrated circuits, programmable logic devices, field programmable gatearrays, optical, chemical, biological, quantum or nanoengineeredsystems, components and mechanisms may be used. In general, thefunctions of the present invention can be achieved by any means as isknown in the art. Distributed, or networked systems, components andcircuits can be used. Communication, or transfer, of data may be wired,wireless, or by any other means.

It will also be appreciated that one or more of the elements depicted inthe drawings/figures can also be implemented in a more separated orintegrated manner, or even removed or rendered as inoperable in certaincases, as is useful in accordance with a particular application. It isalso within the spirit and scope of the present invention to implement aprogram or code that can be stored in a machine-readable medium topermit a computer to perform any of the methods described above.

Additionally, any signal arrows in the drawings/Figures should beconsidered only as exemplary, and not limiting, unless otherwisespecifically noted. Furthermore, the term “or” as used herein isgenerally intended to mean “and/or” unless otherwise indicated.Combinations of components or steps will also be considered as beingnoted, where terminology is foreseen as rendering the ability toseparate or combine is unclear.

As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow,“a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural references unless the contextclearly dictates otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein andthroughout the claims that follow, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and“on” unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

The foregoing description of illustrated embodiments of the presentinvention, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intendedto be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formsdisclosed herein. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, theinvention are described herein for illustrative purposes only, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the spirit and scope of thepresent invention, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognizeand appreciate. As indicated, these modifications may be made to thepresent invention in light of the foregoing description of illustratedembodiments of the present invention and are to be included within thespirit and scope of the present invention.

Thus, while the present invention has been described herein withreference to particular embodiments thereof, a latitude of modification,various changes and substitutions are intended in the foregoingdisclosures, and it will be appreciated that in some instances somefeatures of embodiments of the invention will be employed without acorresponding use of other features without departing from the scope andspirit of the invention as set forth. Therefore, many modifications maybe made to adapt a particular situation or material to the essentialscope and spirit of the present invention. It is intended that theinvention not be limited to the particular terms used in followingclaims and/or to the particular embodiment disclosed as the best modecontemplated for carrying out this invention, but that the inventionwill include any and all embodiments and equivalents falling within thescope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: providing an out-of-bandnetwork connection to at least one device coupled to an in-band network,the at least one device including a non-volatile memory; performingnetwork management functions which include enabling an administrator tomaintain maintaining the out-of-band network connection to the at leastone device, wherein the out-of-band network connection is configured tosupply at least 12 watts of power to the at least one device so as toenable the out-of-band network connection to be active during all poweron and power off states of the at least one device so as to facilitatemonitoring a status of the at least one device, the status determinedfrom information stored in the non-volatile memory; and monitoring theat least one device during at least during a boot process over theout-of-band network connection, wherein the monitoring is performed byutilizing a processor at the at least one device, wherein the processoris dedicated to performing network management functions over theout-of-band network and is configured to execute an operating systemstored in the non-volatile memory, and wherein the operating system isconfigured only to provide the network management functions over theout-of-band network.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the out-of-bandnetwork connection is maintained at all times by a power supply that iscoupled to a connectivity processor at the at least one device, andwherein the power supply is external to the at least one device.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising providing a network managementabstraction layer that is functionally separate from said at least onedevice.
 4. The method of claim 3 further comprising providing power tosaid abstraction layer over the out-of-band network.
 5. The method ofclaim 4, further comprising utilizing an Ethernet network in thenetwork.
 6. The method of claim 3 further comprising providing power tosaid abstraction layer over an Ethernet network.
 7. The method of claim1 wherein the processor is configured to provide status information, andwherein the status information is provided even for a condition wherepower to the at least one device is removed.
 8. The method of claim 1wherein the processor is configured to respond to polling requests inorder to reduce a level of resource loading on other processors in theat least one device.
 9. A system configured to implement the method ofclaim
 8. 10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium havinginstructions for executing in the processor in the method of claim 8.11. The method of claim 1 wherein said monitoring further comprises:accessing the memory of the at least one device to acquire updatedsystem performance parameters of the at least one device; and providingthe updated system performance parameters obtained from the non-volatilememory in response to a polling request received over the out-of-bandnetwork.
 12. The method claim 1 further comprising utilizing theprocessor having a wireless area network (WAN) interface card formfactor.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring theout-of-band network connection to be only accessible by a networkadministrator.
 14. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuringthe in-band network connection to be only accessible by all networkusers.
 15. A system comprising: a processor dedicated to performingnetwork management functions over an out-of-band network; an interfaceto the out-of-band network; non-volatile memory for storing an operatingsystem and network management software to be executed by said processor,wherein the operating system is configured only to provide networkmanagement functions over the out-of-band network; network managementtools configured to perform network management functions which includeenabling an administrator to maintain the out-of-band network connectionso as to monitor information stored in the non-volatile memory during atleast a boot activity of a network device during a boot process of thenetwork device, the network device characterized as being associatedwith said processor, the network management tools coupled to the networkdevice by a system bus, wherein an electrical connection between thenetwork device and an out-of-band management network is configured to beactive during all power on and power off states of the network device soas to facilitate monitoring a status of the network device, theout-of-band network configured to supply at least 12 watts of power tothe network device so as to facilitate the electrical connection; and apower source that is configured to provide power to the system over theout-of-band network.
 16. The system of claim 15 wherein the out-of-bandnetwork comprises a data communication network.
 17. The system of claim16 wherein the network device is powered separately from the out-of-bandnetwork.
 18. The system of claim 17 further comprising means forresponding to SNMP polling requests directed to the network device. 19.The system of claim 15 further comprising a power supply that is coupledto a connective processor at the network device, wherein the powersupply is configured to maintain the electrical connection at all times,and wherein the power supply is external to the at least one device. 20.The system of claim 15 wherein the system is configured to respond topolling requests to provide status information for the network device.21. The system of claim 20 wherein the system has a form factor.
 22. Thesystem of claim 15 wherein the system is configured to determine aserial number of the network device when the network device is in apowered down state.
 23. A method comprising: providing a plurality ofdevices coupled to an Ethernet based out-of-band network, each of theplurality of devices in the plurality including a non-volatile memory;providing at least 12 watts of power to at least one of the plurality ofdevices over the Ethernet based out-of-band network; providing a networkmanagement tool to perform network management functions which includeenabling an administrator to maintain the Ethernet based out-of-bandnetwork connection so as to monitor information stored in thenon-volatile memory of the at least one of the plurality of devicesduring at least a boot process of the at least one of the plurality ofdevices, wherein the network management tool is configured to utilize aprocessor at the at least one of the plurality of devices, the processordedicated to performing network management functions over the Ethernetbased out-of-band network; and executing, with the processor, anoperating system stored in the non-volatile memory, wherein theoperating system is configured only to provide network managementfunctions over the Ethernet based out-of-band network, wherein anelectrical connection between the network management tool and the atleast one of the plurality of devices is active during all power on andpower off states of the network device so as to facilitate monitoring astatus of the at least one of the plurality of devices, the electricalconnection enabled by the at least 12 watts of power provided throughthe Ethernet based out-of-band network.
 24. The method of claim 23further comprising: providing a separate source of power to a portion ofthe at least one of the plurality of devices; and monitoring, with thenetwork management tool, the at least one of the plurality of deviceswhen the separate source of power is removed.
 25. The method of claim 24further comprising providing a network management abstraction layer thatis functionally separate from the at least one of the plurality ofdevices.
 26. The method of claim 25 further comprising providing thepower to the abstraction layer over the Ethernet based out-of-bandnetwork.
 27. The method of claim 26 further comprising utilizing aprocessor to implement the abstraction layer.
 28. The method of claim 25wherein said monitoring further comprises: accessing memory of the atleast one of the plurality of devices to acquire updated statusinformation; and providing said system status information in response toa polling request.
 29. The method of claim 23, further comprisingmaintaining the connection at all times by a power supply that iscoupled to a connective processor at the at least one of the pluralityof devices, and wherein the power supply is external to the at least oneof the plurality of devices.
 30. The method of claim 23 furthercomprising using said processor to execute diagnostic routines on the atleast one of the plurality of devices.
 31. A network system comprising:an out-of-band management network coupling a power supply to at leastone connectivity management processor (CMP), the CMP further coupled toa network device, the network device including a non-volatile memory,the CMP dedicated to performing network management functions over theout-of-band management network and configured to connect to and maintainan electrical network connection over the out-of-band management networkwhen the network device is in a state consisting of an unpowered state,a power on state, and a system boot state, wherein the out-of-bandnetwork is configured to supply at least 12 watts of power to thenetwork device so as to facilitate the electrical network connection tobe active during all of the states, the CMP configured to determine anoperational status of the network device and to serve as a proxy for thenetwork device when the network device is polled by an out-of-bandmanagement tool; and network management tools that perform networkmanagement functions which include enabling an administrator to maintainthe out-of-band management network connection so as to monitorinformation stored in the non-volatile memory of the network deviceduring at least the boot state over the electrical network connectionover the out-of-band management network, wherein the network managementtool is configured to perform the monitoring by utilizing a processor atthe network device, wherein the processor is configured to execute anoperating system stored in the non-volatile memory, and wherein theoperating system is configured only to provide network managementfunctions over the out-of-band management network.
 32. The system ofclaim 31 wherein the out-of-band management network comprises a datacommunication network.
 33. The system of claim 31 wherein theout-of-band management network comprises an Ethernet network.
 34. Thesystem of claim 31 wherein the network device is separately powered fromthe out-of-band management network.
 35. The system of claim 31 whereinsaid CMP is packaged on a standardized interface card so that the CMP isconfigured to be ported to all of the network devices coupled to theout-of-band management network.